Why would I have two car insurance policies?

It might sound strange for someone to have two car insurance policies on the same car, but it usually happens by accident for one of the following reasons:

• Your old insurance has auto renewed: If you take out a policy for a year, you may assume it simply expires automatically. But a lot of insurance providers auto-renew policies, so if you take out another policy, you could be left with two.
  
  
• You don’t sync your dates up: If you cancel one policy and take out a new one but don’t synchronise your dates properly, you could be left with two policies overlapping for a few days.
  
  
• You don’t realise you have two policies: You could have two policies covering the same thing. For example, you may have breakdown cover as part of your comprehensive car insurance but not realise it. If you then took out a separate breakdown policy, you’d be covered twice.

Can I have multiple car insurance policies?

It’s not illegal to have two car insurance policies for the same car, and in most cases it happens accidentally.

But paying for two separate car insurance policies on one car can end up being very pricey, and it doesn’t give extra cover. It could also complicate matters when trying to make a claim.

Will having two policies on one car affect my insurance?

As we’ve mentioned, it’s not illegal to have two car insurance policies on the same car, but it does become illegal if you try to claim the full amount for the same incident from two different insurance companies. This is seen as fraud.

If you do find yourself with double the insurance, you will be paying twice for the same protection. It also gets a bit tricky when it comes to claims, as both the different insurance companies will have to decide how much they each contribute to the cost of any claim.

In some cases, you may be able to choose which policy to claim through, but most policies have a ‘contribution clause’ which means the pay-out will be split between them.

Also, if you have two insurance policies, you’re effectively making two claims. This could have a greater impact on the cost of your premiums when you come to renew your insurance.

Can two people insure the same car?

Yes, it is possible for two different people to insure the same car. It’s legal too. If you’re a learner driver, you could take out a separate insurance policy on your parents’ car. The same goes if you want to drive your partner’s car. You can find out more about this with our helpful guide.

If you just want to drive someone else’s car for a short period of time, you can get temporary car insurance.

The cheaper option is usually to add someone to your policy as a named driver. This may even reduce the cost of the policy if they’re an experienced driver.

Can one person have two different car insurance policies on two different cars?

Yes, there are plenty of situations where you may take out separate insurance policies for two or more cars. This includes:

• Insuring a classic car
  
  
• Insuring a car with expensive modifications · Insuring a car in a much more expensive car insurance group · Adding a higher-risk named driver to one policy – this could be a younger driver for example
  
  

If you need to insure two cars, people often choose a multi-car insurance policy to keep both cars on the same policy.